mrm

Alan, thank you for the kind words. About paint. All you need to do is find out who your local paint shop is that is official PPG rep. A lot of these colors were originally not PPG, but I have found that there is a PPG conversion code for pretty much any manufacturer color out there. If you establish a good relationship with your shop, they would not charge you the stupid prices the colors cost. Some of these colors can be tricky tho, as to add all the component to them, there may be a minimum quantity made. Most of the time it’s 4oz. I ask them to mix them “sprayable” for me, which means they are already reduced. That makes them 8oz minimum. So for example, I had Lamborghini Arancio Argos mixed for me (which is a darker much more orange tri-coat). That meant getting 8oz ready to spray base coat and 8oz mid coat. It was $50 out the door. That may seem a lot, but when taking few things into consideration, not really. First off, they can be done literally in 10 minutes, while you’re chatting. Then consider that you can use the base color by itself or apply the mid coat over different base. So really you are buying more than one color. The quality is far superior to anything out of a spray can and when reduced with medium reducer (that’s what I ask for) can be applied over Tamiya primer easily and dries to the touch within minutes. With Tamiya spray cans approaching the $10 price, it’s actually not expensive at all. The advantage I have is that my local PPG rep is across the street for me and I can walk over and get a color done and be spraying it literally within 30 minutes. As a comparison, the nearest hobby shop is 120 miles away. Hope I was helpful.

My plan was to work on my T-Touring last night, but what fun is it to make plans if we don't brake them? So I continued with my Sweet Victoria. After the rear end got wrapped up, I turned my attention to the front. The spindles had to be modified in order to get the front to sit where I wanted it. Some styrene rod, lots of sanding and smoothing (mold lines were pretty bad on these pieces) and some Molotow chrome later, I had the front exactly where I wanted it. The steering rack is a nice piece, but the tie rod ends are molded really bulky. Those were sanded considerably, to make them look more "refined" and the mounting bosses on the hubs were cut down. Now we had a convincing modern street rod chassis with independent suspension all around. It still needs front brakes, the front wheels/tires to be narrowed a little and better mounting hubs on the rear, but we have a roller. The countless mock ups, calculations and measurements paid off! The stance is exactly where I wanted it. Next I am turning my attention to the engine. Thanks for looking and stay tuned.

Very nice, especially considering what you started with.

Wow, really nice! The seats have the perfect level of shine to them. Looks like real leather. What did you use on then to achieve the effect?

Very sharp build. Looks like it came straight out of Boyd’s shop.

I’ll echo what others said. Despite your troubles it turned out very nice. I really like it.

Wiring the fuel is the simplest on this engine. Fuel Line goes in the back of one of the fuel rails that are already on it, gets through a braided line into the other rail On the front and out the back returns to the tank. Engines like that never have pumps or anything near by. Maybe a pressure gauge at one end of the two fuel rails.

Thank you Claude. It’s more like I adapted the chassis to the suspension. LOL. And I actually kinda standardized it a little. So now is more like a standard show-rod IRS than the Buttera’s one off.

Very nice. It’s a nice color, altho from your early photos with the spray can, I expected it to be much darker.

Thanks for the kind words Martin. I don't know if I'll manage to finish it tonight, but it will come close for sure.

Thanks Greg. This morning I got the rear suspension done. The inner and outer radius rods were cut from the four link front pieces in the '32 kits. The original chrome pieces had a lot of flash and some areas had to be sanded. Molotow markers to the rescue. I love them. I'm starting on the front end. Then everything can be touched up if needed and my Sweet Victoria would have a pretty blink chassis. hanks for looking and stay tuned.

Pretty cool. A buddy of mine had a white one, way back in Europe. We used to roam the night clubs around Sofia, Bulgaria with it.

So, back to the interior.... I sprayed the dash and the part of the side panels in the original blue color. Then I masked the dash and the trim with BMF. Then I sprayed everything with the color I originally had on the roof. Then I unmasked it. Still needs some touching up, but overall, I am happy with the result. Front seat mocked up. I took quite a bit of sanding and trimming to get it to seat where I want it. I hate when seat backs poke too high out of a street rod's interior. And with the roof on. Thanks for looking and stay tuned.

Thank you Greg. I have one more of this kit, but I am piecing it out, as I took the rear suspension for my Sweet Victoria project and for some parts I need to complete this one. Thank you Dan. I am definitely finishing this one, altho I don't know when I will be entering a show/contest again. I always wanted to build one. Thank you Dennis. Thank you Jim. Your comment is appreciated. Thank you Rodney. This project was going with a nice steady tempo and then I don't know what happened. I guess it kinda fell through the cracks.

Gorgeous color combo.

And a quick mock up. I am very happy with where it stands. And the paint goes perfect with the silver and chrome drivetrain I planned. The previous color did not go very well with the silver. Now the clear needs to cure a little longer, before I can wetsand it and polish the body. So, I'll be concentrating on the interior and engine and the other 4 projects. Thanks for looking and stay tuned.

Very nice builds. I saw the feature in that other magazine.

Another stunner! You guys make me wanna build a truck.

Wow! what a transformation! This is why I love modeling. The only limit is imagination.

Sooooo '80s. Love it!

Amazing! Love how clean and monotone it is.

This has so much win in it! The colors, the stance...just perfect.

I have a soft spot for wagons. This is a really cool model. I think you did a great job on the body and the color is spot on. I love it.

So, new paint. It is Lamborghini Arancio Atlas. It is a tri-coat, which uses plain white for base, with translucent orange pearl mid-coat. I decided to spice it up slightly, so instead of plain white I used the base-coat from a Ferrari tri-coat paint, the Bianco Fuji. It is a white that has a slight pearl shine to it, kind of like inside a seashell. Now I am happy with the color, altho I went a touch heavy on the clear coat. Nothing a good ole wetsanding can't fix tho. It will just take some extra elbow grease. LOL Indoors picture. Outdoors pics. Thanks for looking and stay tuned...

The problem with the roadster body over fenders is the shape of the curve. The curve of the fenders and that of the wheel-wells on the body are not perfect circle. And they match on both parts, but only at a certain angle. So when you test fit and just mock up your model, everything seems to be fine. But once painted, if you want the firewall to sit down on the frame (or in my case I like just the front of my body to be a touch channeled) it rotates the rear opening just enough to misalign the curve of the rear fender and the opening on the body. Basically, the forward bottom edge of body''s wheel-well pushes against the fender and opens a gap on top, because the the whole body does not sit as low as it should. If you sand that edge to allow the body to go down, you can take away the little molding that runs on the edge of the body. When I was building my model, during test fitting everything seemed fine. When everything was painted and final assembly started, the body just didn't want to sit all the way down. I had to literally force glue it with 5 min epoxy and there till is a gap (altho much smaller now), which almost ruins the model for me.